Carbohydrate histochemistry of the opossum submandibular and major sublingual glands

Abstract

Submandibular and major sublingual salivary glands of the opossum contain histochemically demonstrable neutral mucosubstances, nonsulfated acid musosubstances and sulfomucins. Sialomucins could not be demonstrated conclusively with the methods used in this study. Special serous cells of the opossum submandibular gland contained low concentrations of acidic mucosubstances but no appreciable concentration of neutral mucosubstances was seen. Sulfomucins were not observed in special serous cells. The mucous tubules of the submandibular gland contained high concentrations of neutral mucosubstances. No appreciable acidic mucosubstance was demonstrated in the submandibular gland mucous tubules. Unlike the mucous tubules of the submandibular gland, the major sublingual gland mucous tubules contained high concentrations of both neutral and acidic mucosubstances. The mucous tubules often contained sulfomucin-positive cells interspersed among cells that contained high concentrations of non-sulfated acidic mucosubstance. Marked staining of sulfated acidic mucosubstance was seen only in the major sublingual gland, in both the mucous tubules and in the seromucous demilunes. The seromucous demilunes contained both sulfated and non-sulfated acidic mucosubstances.

Distribution of N-acetyl (4,5,6,7,8,9-14C) neuraminic acid in mice studied by whole-body autoradiography.

“…The radioactivity of the submandibular gland was higher than those of the sublingual and small submucosal salivary glands such as lingual and palatine. The major salivary glands of many different mammalian species have been studied histochemically and demonstrated a marked diversity (19,27,31,35). According to Leppi (19), mouse major salivary glands secrete only sialomucin.…”

Fine Structure of the Mandibular Gland in Crest-tailed Marsupial-rat (<I>Dasyuroides byrnei</I>)

“…The breeding of Dasyuroides byrnei (D. byrnei) has recently been clarified [1, 311. While there have been a few reports on the mandibular gland of the opossum (a marsupial) [11,14,30], there are no reports on the histology of the mandibular glands of D. byrnei. As part of a series of comparative morphological studies of salivary glands, in this paper we describe the fine structures of the mandibular glands in D. byrnei and compare them with the findings of the mandibular glands in opossum and other animals.…”

Ultrastructure of the Salivary Glands in the Gray Short-Tailed Opossum(<i>Monodelphis domestica</i>)

“…There have been a few reports on the structure of salivary glands of marsupials: opossum (16)(17)(18)(19), koala (20,21), and wallaby (22). In these marsupials, the secretory units of the submandibular glands, except for those of koala (20,21) (Fig.…”